Update: Officer injured alerting neighbors to fire in North End of New Bedford

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2012 at 1:56 PMNov 28, 2012 at 5:47 PM

Fire heavily damaged a three-family home on Clark Street today, displacing six occupants and sending a police sergeant who ran into the burning building to the hospital.

CURT BROWN

NEW BEDFORD — Fire heavily damaged a three-family home on Clark Street today, displacing six occupants and sending a police sergeant who ran into the burning building to the hospital.

The officer, Frank Eccleston, suffered smoke inhalation when he ran up the back stairway of the house at 118-120 Clark St. and told tenants to leave because the building was on fire, according to Police Chief David A. Provencher.

“I’m not surprised,” he said of Eccleston’s bravery. “It’s typical of the commitment to public safety he has displayed his entire career.”

A spokeswoman at St. Luke’s Hospital said late this afternoon that Eccleston was in fair condition.

Fire Chief Michael Gomes said two firefighters were also injured, suffering minor cuts and scrapes, while battling the fire.

None of the tenants was injured, but they will be temporarily displaced, according to the fire chief. The American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts was responding and was planning to provide them with shelter. Gas and electric service to the building were shut off, the chief said.

The fire, which was reported at 1:23 p.m., started on the third floor and heavy flames and thick smoke were blowing out the windows, according to Gomes.

He said firefighters with Engine 7 entered the apartment and fought the fire.

“They really knocked it down quickly. They did a helluva job,” he said.

The third floor apartment suffered fire damage and the apartments on the second and first floors sustained water damage, the fire chief said.

He said the cause is under investigation, but it is believed to have started in a front bedroom.

Two cats on the first floor were found safe in the apartment and two cats on the third floor are missing, but believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood.

Gomes said first responding firefighters saw two cats running down the back stairs as they entered the building.

Tenants, wrapped in white blankets against the cold, consoled each other on the sidewalk outside the building.

Luz Teyenal, who lives on the second floor, said she fled the building and ran into cold with her grandson, who is 11 months old, in her arms, after she smelled smoke and Eccleston told her the building was on fire. She said she was in such a hurry she ran out without the child’s hat and coat.

Marie Gomes, who lives on the first floor, and her boyfriend, Roy Medeiros, were worried about her cats. After the blaze was extinguished, firefighters allowed them into the building and they found their two pets.